


Twice shy

by doctor243



Series: IronWidow Prompts [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Humanity's Strongest, Hurt/Comfort, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Natasha Romanov, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:20:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23837458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctor243/pseuds/doctor243
Summary: They say “Once bitten, twice shy.” What happens when Tony is shy?
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark
Series: IronWidow Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1739137
Comments: 13
Kudos: 147





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is in response to a prompt that said "Tony ends up in a heated discussion with Cap one day in like a meeting with everyone a little while after the events of the civil war when suddenly Cap throws his arms up in an exasperated sigh and Tony flinches so violently that everyone in the room notices. Obviously Cap hasn’t told them what happened in Siberia. And suddenly everyone has a lot of questions." by @tonystarkismyprompt on tumblr.

“Look Cap,” Tony sighed in frustration. “I know you’re supposed to respect your elders, but I’m honestly ready to slap you.” Rhodey snorted in agreement while Natasha barely tried to conceal her smirk. The veteran Avengers were in the meeting room, trying to find an agreeable stance on the Sokovia Accords, but as they had not had a break in four hours, tensions were getting high, which probably meant that it was a good thing Bruce was still missing.

“It’s not that complicated, Tony,” Steve hammered out, trying to get his point across. “The Accords are way too restricting for us to be an effective unit. Intel we receive must be reported, international missions must have the approval of 5 different countries’ governments, _and_ the ones involved.” Tony pinched his eyebrows to slow down the ensuing headache. Steve continued. “Through all that communication and approval, intel is _bound_ to be leaked and our missions would be compromised. And in the unlikely event that the info _isn’t_ leaked, the amount of time it will take may just make us too late anyways. People could die in that time.”

“That’s why there are things called contingencies, special cases,” Tony replied, summoning his inner zen to stay calm despite having repeated himself for the 5346226th time. “And that aside, don’t make it seem like I love every word of the Accords. I’m trying to fight for us as much as you are.”

“Then why are we signing this thing at all?” Steve cried out, standing up. Clint leaned forward, ready to intervene if necessary. Thor was surprisingly silent but his eyes were ever attentive.

“Because,” Tony stood up as well, breathing getting a little rougher. “Countries don’t like it when we enter their territories with a man that wears the _freaking American Flag_ and tears shit up!”

“Tony my uniform doesn’t mean anything.”

“Your uniform basically announces to the rest of the world that we’re Americans trying to impose American values on foreign soil. You know what that’s called?”

“Wanda isn’t American,” Steve argued.

“Don’t interrupt me Steve.” Tony bit out. “Colonisation. It’s called colonisation. And yes, Wanda isn’t American, but it’s not like she’s wearing the Sokovian Flag on her chest for representation.”

“She could if she wanted to,” Steve grumbled in frustration.

“You’re missing the point, Cap!” Tony was basically shouting at this point. “People are afraid, and we can’t make it worse. Who wouldn’t be afraid after Sokovia or New York? We need to answer to somebody.”

Thor grunted in agreement. “When I was younger and didn’t answer to anyone, many catastrophes ensued. Many of my brethren have died because of foolish decisions that I made when I thought I was doing the right thing.” 

“And what if the ‘somebody’ that we answer to isn’t right? What if they have a hidden agenda? Like Alexander Pierce? Or the Former Vice President?” Steve tried to reason out.

“That’s a risk we might have to take,” Tony bit out. “We can add a clause that includes proof of corruption or something. But do you mean to tell me that if we remained a private organisation, that we would never succumb to such vices? We will _never_ be corrupt or have selfish motives?” He looked at Steve with a challenging eye.

“That’s not what-”

“Look at the mess we created in Germany, just for our precious Bucky. Can you imagine if there were innocent people during the fight?” Tony walked towards the refreshments table to grab a glass of water. Arguing made him thirsty.

“Tony, that’s not fair-”

“Oh wait,” Tony paused. “I can. Lagos. Johannesburg. Seoul. Sokovia.” He ignored Steve’s look of annoyance and poured himself a glass. “Granted, Sokovia was my fault, because I was trying to do something right. So was Shield when they tried to harness the Tesseract but brought on the Battle of New York.” He took a sip and looked Steve in the eyes. “So were you, when you tried to save Bucky and chase Zemo.”

Steve sucked in a deep breath in frustration and raised his arms up, hands clenching into fists in an effort to control himself. It was altogether _not_ a sudden movement, but everything that followed happened in a blur. Tony jerked back suddenly, glass of water shattering on the floor as he activated his watch gauntlet and pointed it shakily at Steve, practically falling to the floor. The room was immediately in uproar, Rhodey and Natasha rushing over to Tony, struggling to calm him down. But his eyes were glassed over as if he were hallucinating, and if the room were silent, one would be able to hear his breathing. His glove made a whirring sound as it primed itself for firing and Clint drew his hidden knife, ready to disarm the billionaire. Thor jumped on to the table, in front of Steve, in an attempt at protection. Steve, to his credit, remained perfectly still, his face spelling shock.

“Tony. Tony!” Natasha yelled, snapping her fingers in front of his face. “Look at me!”

“Snap out of it man!” Rhodey barked, just as loud, trying to pull Tony’s arm out of harm’s direction. “Hey!”

“Stark,” Thor rumbled out in warning. “Put down the weapon.”

Slowly, Tony’s eyes seemed to focus on reality again, and the whirring in his glove died down. His arm slowly lowered but his body was still shaking and his ragged breathing was not smoothing out. “I…” he spluttered, still gasping for air. “I’m sorry…” He crumbled to his knees, and Rhodey and Nat dropped to their knees as well, hands supporting Tony soothingly. Thor slowly got off the table, but kept his eyes on Tony. Clint stowed his knife and Steve finally lowered his arms.

“I’m so sorry,” Tony choked out before practically leaping up and stumbling out of the meeting room, running like there were hounds on his tail. Natasha attempted to follow him, but Rhodey grabbed her arm, his sorrow-filled eyes instructing her to give Tony some space. She looked away in irritation, but obeyed. The remaining silence in the room was palpable. Clint was the first to break it.

“What the fuck was that?” He demanded, although his voice was barely louder than a whisper.

They looked at each other in search of answers until they all settled on Cap, who’s face was stricken with guilt.

“Cap?” Natasha asked, voice dangerously calm. “Do you have something to share?” 

He looked at the team with eyes filled with sorrow and shame. “There are some things you don’t know about Siberia.”

* * *

Tony found himself on his back, lying on the lawn of the compound. His fingers grasped weakly at the grass as its scent filled his nostrils. _Grass. Summer. No snow._ He chanted mentally as he challenged his body to stop hyperventilating. His eyes fixed on the birds that were flapping desperately in the sky and he forced himself to focus on them instead of the flashing images of Cap’s shield ready to descend on him. The look in his eyes had been murderous, and Tony was almost certain that Steve made a last-minute decision to disable the suit instead of beheading him.

_Grass. New York. Birds._

God, how weak he felt, breaking down in front of the other Avengers and raising his hand against Captain freaking America. Thank Christ Bucky hadn’t been in the room.

_Dirt. Warmth. Compound._

Slowly his breathing returned to normal and his hammering heart reduced to a light thumping in his ears. How could he ever lead the team like that?

“Tony?” _Natasha._

“The glove has no lethal capabilities.” He mumbled without looking at her. “Even if I lost control, no one would have gotten hurt.”

“I know,” she said gently. She sat next to him in silence, and he continued his mental chant. Finally, when she decided silence was not doing either of them any good, she spoke.

“Cap told us what happened in Siberia.”

The pounding of his heart returned, and he turned his head away from her to mask his uneven breathing. If only such tactics worked against her. “That was unprofessional of me. I shouldn’t have lost my cool in there.” He managed to say, almost proud of how even his words came out.

“Tony,” she pressed. “No one blames you for what happened in there.”

“Yeah?” He scoffed. “Thanks for the wishful thinking.”

“They don’t,” she maintained firmly. “We all have our traumas, so we get it.” _I get it._ She wanted to say.

“Yet you guys don’t make a scene when nothing happens.”

“We all have traumas,” she repeated, calmly grabbing Tony’s chin and turning his face to look at hers. “But you have more trauma than most.”

“That’s a lie.” Unable to turn his face away, he stared at the sky instead, or anywhere other than her piercing green eyes.

“And you don’t have the same training that we do.” She continued, despite Tony’s scoff. “We were all bred for war, trained to handle these sorts of situations. We are soldiers, and you are not. Do you know what that makes you?”

“Look Nat,” he sighed, sitting up. “If this is your way of telling me that I shouldn’t be on the team-”

“Answer me,” she asked again, not unkindly. “ _Do_ you know what that makes you?”

“A liability?” he answered hotly, a flicker of hurt in his eyes. “Weak? Unsuitable? Ambitious? There, I said it, happy?”

“It makes you the strongest of us,” she replied softly, a smile dancing on her lips with such sadness as her fingers graced his cheek. “You’ve been through so much and you’ve done so much, even without being told how to do it. You’ve almost died so many times, even without the invulnerability many of us have.”

He looked away in disbelief. There was no way he could believe this bunch of lies.

“It’s true.” Natasha seemed to be able to read his expression. Deciding words had reached their limit of helpfulness, she reached over and pulled him into an embrace. Tony stiffened almost immediately, but she persisted, and soon he relaxed, closing his eyes and breathing in her scent. He barely noticed that his breathing was no longer laboured, and his heart was no longer fighting his ribcage. “It’s true,” she whispered in his ear again, hopeful that repetition would eventually help him believe it. “You _are_ the strongest Avenger.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony notices some nice surprises and decides to investigate.

Tony was never accused for being oblivious. On the other hand, Nat’s subtlety was her occupation.

In the days following his episode in the meeting room, Tony noticed a few changes in the compound. They weren’t…significant things per se, but they did appear to be special differences. When he woke up the morning after to a throbbing headache, he found some Advil on his bedside table with a glass of water, although he had no memory of placing those items there. When he entered the kitchen, he found large amounts of bacon and scrambled eggs that, judging by the dishes in the sink, everyone else had already partaken of already. When he sat in the meeting room waiting for their daily accords meeting to start, he was informed by Jarvis that “Captain Rogers has been called away for a personal emergency and will return in a few days.”

A little stunned by the sudden freedom he had, he strolled around the compound, unsure of how he should occupy his time during the next couple of days. He considered looking over the amendments that they had made to the accords, or creating a new suit in his workshop, but neither held any sort of appeal to him at the moment.

Throughout the day he noticed even stranger things. He had headed back to the kitchen for his special cookie and was pleasantly surprised to see that his cookie jar was unusually full (they were _good_ cookies and his teammates tended to leech off of him). _Odd_. The pot in the coffee machine was still full, even though he swore he had a cup (read: 3) during breakfast. When he finally _did_ venture into the workshop to find something to do, he could swear that his bots were on their best behaviour since…since ever. Dum-E was frantically sweeping away at nothingness and U was ever by his side waiting for an order. Butterfingers just stayed still, which was extremely uncharacteristic of him. Tony looked around suspiciously – it was time to conduct an experiment.

He had a hunch, now he just needed proof.

“Jarvis, honey,” he called out, as he stood up to leave the workshop. “Could you send me the location of all my teammates?”

“Certainly, sir,” his loyal companion replied.

He found Clint in the gym, and strolled past, giving him a short wave.

“What’s up, Tony?” he asked without putting down the dumbells.

“Oh nothing, just taking a stroll,” Tony replied nonchalantly. “Y’know,” he paused as if in thought. “This gym is really messy. I should get someone to come and clean it up.”

Clint chuckled. “Yeah, you should.”

The mechanic smiled and turned away. He found Rhodey in the Library, reading the newspaper.

“Hey, Honeybear,” Tony smirked. “You hungry?”

“Nah why?” Rhodey replied, looking up from his reading fondly.

“I don’t know, I’m really in the mood for some pasta tonight.”

“Well,” Rhodey laughed. “Don’t go anywhere near the kitchen, you might start World War III.”

“Hey!” Tony pouted. “I’m not _that_ bad at cooking.”

“Tell that to the contractors you have on your payroll to replace your kitchen every month.”

“I will,” he turned, heading off. “I’ll even cook for them.”

Natasha was in the kitchen peeling an orange. _Bingo_ , he thought.

“Eww,” he scrunched his face in disgust. “Is that an orange?”

“No, it’s a purple,” the Black Widow smirked at him. “Why? You got a problem with fruits?”

“Not all fruits,” he replied, opening the fridge, and feigning a search for something. “I just hate oranges.”

“Why?” she questioned, popping a slice into her mouth. “Did one try to steal your tech?”

“No,” he emerged with a Mars bar, shrugging nonchalantly. “I once ate an orange that had gone bad, and now I hate all oranges. Also, they’re the colour for the worst hockey team in the league, but that’s a different story.”

“Can’t wait to hear it,” she replied, popping another slice into her mouth.

Tony just grinned.

The next morning, Tony headed to the kitchen, deliberately passing by the gym. Sure enough, it was still a mess, and last night, no pasta was to be found for dinner. They’d ended up ordering Thai food, which he didn’t mind at all. However, when he entered the kitchen, sure enough, a pot of coffee and a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs awaited it, and all the oranges in the fruit basket were gone. There must have been at least 10 in the basket, but now there wasn’t a single trace of the fruit. He smirked. _Hook, line, sinker._

“Widow,” he called when he found her in the 3D training room during her break. “You busy?”

She looked over, wiping the sweat off of her face with the towel around her neck. “Nope,” she took a sip from her bottle. “Just taking a break. What’s up?” Her hair was getting a little longer, and she now had it in a short ponytail.

“Well,” he smiled, stepping closer to her. He looked into her eyes and his heart grew three sizes, threatening to impale itself with the shrapnel. “I wanted to talk to you about some missing oranges.” His voice lowered.

She showed no outer reactions to his statement, but coolly replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That’s alright,” his smirk grew, and he took another step closer. “Perhaps you could tell me who’s been making breakfast these past couple of days.” Another step. “Or who put the Advil by my bed?”

He could sense the internal debate within her, and he knew she was debating or not whether to admit to these secret Santa acts. “What Advil?”

“Oh was that not you?” He feigned ignorance, pulling out his phone. _Oh my sweet, sweet Natalie Rushman._ “Oh wait,” he continued when the holographic video from his phone popped up. “Is that you… _scolding_ my bots?” His smile widened as he watched her fight down the blood that was rushing to her face while she watched the video of her pointing and speaking to Dum-E, U and Butterfingers while they looked…remorseful? “Let’s listen to the audio shall w-”

Natasha’s hand shot out and grabbed his.

“Stop.” Her face was completely red now. Good grief she was so frickin’ adorable. Tony smiled at his victory. He could have just checked all of the security footage, but finding out things the old school added a certain thrill to the search.

“I’m sorry,” she huffed finally. “I won’t do those things anymore, if it bothers you.”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Tony said quickly. “I never said it bothered me.”

She turned a suspicious eye to him.

“I wanted to thank you,” he smiled warmly. He opened his arms, inviting her in for a hug. He’d have pulled her in, but he was still concerned for his physical well-being if he crossed the line of physical boundaries. “Nobody has tried so hard to make me feel better for a very, very long time.”

She eyed him for a few seconds before succumbing and hesitantly going in for the hug. “I know what it’s like to have nightmares, Tony,” she whispered.

“Thank you,” he whispered back, breathing in the scent of her hair and sweat, finding himself surprisingly calming down. That was unusual – he always pushed down a panic attack, or focused on something else, but never really, _actually,_ calmed down. He closed his eyes and hugged her tighter. This woman was tugging at areas of his soul that he never knew existed. He was probably fucked. “It was really sweet of you.”

She just responded by reciprocating the tightness. They stayed that way for a while, relishing in each other’s company. Natasha, the heart of the team, trying her best to heal Tony, the mind of the team.

“You really didn’t have to throw away the oranges though,” Tony mused.

“Shut the fuck up,” Nat grumbled and just burrowed her face deeper into his chest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I really wanted to write a chapter that had Nat trying to do nice things for Tony but not really knowing how, so she does the most extreme and adorable and awkward things. Hope you enjoyed it^^ If you did, come hit me up on tumblr at [ @doc243](https://doctor243.tumblr.com/) and give me prompts or ideas^^

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! If you enjoyed this, come hit me up on tumblr at [ @doc243](https://doctor243.tumblr.com/) and give me prompts or ideas^^


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